State museum faces financial crisis

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois State Museum System might have to close one of its six sites -- or push for an entrance fee -- if its finances don’t improve.

DAVID THOMAS

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois State Museum might have to close one of its six sites -- or push for an entrance fee -- if its finances don’t improve.

“We can’t sustain much more in terms of cuts,” museum director Bonnie Styles said. “We’re at a skeletal crew. Everyone’s working extremely hard and we have a very passionate staff, so we’ve tried to cover by just having everyone work harder. We’re at the point now where everyone is stretched quite thin.”

The museum system has six locations around Illinois, two of them in Springfield. The main state museum is at 502 S. Spring St., while the museum’s Research and Collections Center – which Styles described as being vital to the public face of the museum – is at 1011 E. Ash St.

The Illinois State Museum also operates the Dickson Mounds Museum in Lewistown, an archaeological museum centered on Native Americans. The other three museum facilities -- Lockport Gallery in Lockport, the Southern Illinois Artisans Shop and Southern Illinois Art Gallery in Rend Lake, and the Illinois Artisans Shop and Chicago Gallery in Chicago -- are art galleries.

Styles said she does not expect Dickson Mounds or either of the facilities in Springfield to close.

Possible cuts

However, Styles said officials have looked into the possibility of reducing operating hours or closing other facilities. Asked if there was a threshold the museum system would need to cross in order to take those steps, Styles said, “We’re there.”

Any closure would be based on “who served fewer people,” Styles said.

“If we go lower than we are now, we are looking at retrenchments,” Styles said.

Already, the budget crunch has forced the museum’s hand on a number of issues. Because of cuts, the museum has discontinued an after-school education program that was directed at children.

“We have already lengthened the tenure of our short-term exhibitions because we don't have enough staff to handle the planning, installation, removal, and transport of the exhibitions between our facilities,” Styles said.

Mirroring DNR

The museum falls under the umbrella of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which also faces desperate fiscal times.

“As they’ve been cut, we’ve sustained similar cuts,” Styles said.

DNR has tried to shield the museum by using its wide array of special funds, she said.

“They’ve put out there that’s how they’ve been surviving, in part because they have other funds they can allocate to help make the department work when there are cuts,” Styles said.

But even those special funds, which contain revenue from fishing and hunting license fees, are in danger. Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, and DNR director Marc Miller told a House committee earlier this year the department will burn through its reserve fund and special funds this fiscal year.

Mautino is pushing a proposal to relieve DNR of certain mandates, which he says would save the department millions of dollars.

Mautino also has said he is in the middle of discussions with a variety of groups to raise different DNR fees, such as fees for hunting or fishing licenses. Mautino did not return calls last week about the status of those talks.

Lawmakers also have discussed the possibility of charging admission fees at state parks.

Like state parks, the state museum’s facilities are free to the public, and Styles said officials have talked about instituting a museum entrance fee to as well.

Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, wants to know if other state museums charge admission.

“Nobody would like to see a fee put on there, but if other states are doing that with other museums and libraries … is that something we would need to take a look at?” Sullivan said.

Both Sullivan and Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, said they want to see if an entrance fee would be worth it.

“If it could be proven to be that an entrance fee would cover the cost, then absolutely I would support it,” Bomke said. “If that’s what it would take to keep the facilities open I would support it.”

But even without an entrance fee, Styles said any relief for DNR would translate to relief for the museum system.

Doing more with less

Styles, who has been museum director since 2006, began her career as curator of anthropology in 1977. She has seen the budget and headcount of the museum shrink as its operations expanded.

When she started at the museum, its budget was around $8 million, Styles said. but it operated only three facilities then, not six.

By 2000, the museum had 87 staff members and a $5.4 million budget. There has been little change in its appropriation since then. In the last 13 years, the museum's smallest appropriation was $4.9 million in 2006 and its largest was $6.2 million in 2008.

The number of museum employees next year is projected at 67.

Styles said the museum has tried to maintain its public functions even as its staff has been reduced, but there are costs to the lower headcount.

For instance, curators at the museum’s research and collections center bring in outside grants to fund their work.

“So when we lose staff, that cuts dollars that we can actually bring in from outside sources for research,” Styles said.

Bomke sympathizes with the museum and the budget problems it has had to face, but says lawmakers have to balance demands on the state’s checkbook.

“We have a serious fiscal problem. Do I want to see state museums, that people can take their families to, close? Absolutely not,” Bomke said. “But do I want children who have developmentally disabled issues not get services? Do I want seniors who are finding it difficult to get services because of the financial situation and cutbacks with the state? Of course not.

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